A Catholic Day at Portsmouth Cathedral

Yesterday I went to Portsmouth Cathedral where relics of the parents of St Therese were brought to the diocese to be venerated.   Louis and Zelie Martin had already been beatified and in preparation for the Synod on Marriage they are both to be canonised.  I was a steward for most of the day and was astonished at the turn out.   There were queues to approach the casket which filled the morning and went into the afternoon.   There was a pause for a couple of hours though there was still many people praying and the queues began again in the evening.   I am sure that the turnout even surprised Bishop Egan, but at the Mass the wonderful work he has done was evident in the participation of the Catholic Schools in Portsmouth and even in the evening young people from the schools were turning up.   After 40 years of listening to the Faith being sneered at, and being marked out as uncharitable for daring to object, I felt that at last I was home again.          

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